A former Olympic rower and mutual-fund salesman — missing since November 2015 — has turned himself in to police.
Harold Backer, whose clients have accused him of defrauding them of millions of dollars before he disappeared, walked up to a counter at Victoria Police Department headquarters on Thursday afternoon and identified himself.
He is now facing two counts of fraud over $5,000.
He remains in custody and will appear in court Tuesday.
“It came as a surprise,” Victoria police spokesman Const. Matt Rutherford said.
“He was safe and he came on his own accord.”
Backer rowed in the Olympics in 1984, 1988 and 1992 before becoming an investment dealer, most recently with Investia Financial.
He disappeared Nov. 3, 2015, after telling his family he was going on a bike ride.
The last known image of Backer came from a security camera in Port Angeles, Washington, showing him riding his bike away from the Coho ferry terminal in the early afternoon.
In November 2016, a Port Angeles resident told the Times Colonist she had seen him in town two days after the photos were taken.
Backer wrote a letter to several of his clients expressing remorse for decisions he made that cost them money and taking responsibility for the financial losses. He admitted to running a pyramid scheme and said there was no way he could ever pay back the losses his clients experienced.
The letter was sent to 15 clients and arrived at their homes within a day or two of his disappearance.
At that point, the missing person case turned into a fraud investigation, Rutherford said.
While the total amount is unknown, just two families are out a total of more than $2 million.
Investia has denied responsibility, saying the transactions were carried out by Backer off their books, under his private company, My Financial Backer.
Betty and Boris Klavora say they lost more than $800,000. Boris was Backer’s rowing coach in the 1980s and the couple regularly hosted Backer and other elite Canadian rowers for dinner at their Vancouver home.
Betty said the couple was surprised to receive a phone call from Victoria police on Friday about noon.
“We thought we’d never see him anymore,” she said. “My husband said he will visit him in jail, look him in the eye and ask him what was this all about. Because he was a personal friend.”
That’s no longer the case, she said. “We are disappointed.”
Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith said his department had no new information about Backer before reading that he had turned himself in.
Smith said there was still a “missing person” alert out for Backer Friday afternoon, which means that if he crossed a border, his name would be flagged for police and border officials.
Missing persons are not arrested, but police are typically notified, he said.
“The question is: If he turned himself in in Victoria, how did he get back into Canada?” Smith said.
Backer’s arrival meant investigators scrambled into the early hours of Friday morning to put together lengthy documentation for his telebail hearing the same day.
While Backer currently faces two charges, that could change, Rutherford said. “Investigations like this are very complex, especially with the amount of investors Mr. Backer had. So it’s going to take some time and that number may change.”
He thanked residents and the media for sharing information about Backer after he went missing.
— with files from Andrew A. Duffy
